Martínez-Arribas F, Martín-Garabato E, Zapardiel I, Sánchez J, Lucas A R, Tejerina A, Schneider J
Research Unit, Fundación Tejerina, Centro de Patología de la Mama, Madrid, Spain.
Anticancer Res. 2008 Sep-Oct;28(5A):2595-8.
Bax is one of the main effectors of apoptosis in breast cancer. However, in contrast with the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2, which has been extensively studied in this tumor, there are relatively few clinical studies on the biological role of Bax in breast cancer.
The expression of the apoptosis-related Bax gene was studied in a series of 255 previously untreated breast cancers by means of immuno-flow cytometry. Additionally, and by the same method, the expression of the Bcl-2, VEGF and Nup88 genes were also studied. As variables of the study for the final statistical analysis, the histological variety of the tumors, histological and nuclear grade, the expression of hormone receptors, p53, Ki-67 or c-erb-B2, axillary node invasion, tumor size and DNA-ploidy were also included.
The expression of the proapoptotic Bax protein was significantly associated with the expression of Nup88 (p<0.0001), VEGF (p=0.0014) and Bcl-2 (p=0.0063), all measured by the same method. An inverse correlation with c-erb-B2 expression, which almost attained statistical significance (p=0.058) was also registered.
This study adds evidence to the little explored link between apoptosis and angiogenesis. Furthermore, it discloses a previously unreported relationship between Bax and Nup88 expression.
Bax是乳腺癌细胞凋亡的主要效应分子之一。然而，与在该肿瘤中已得到广泛研究的抗凋亡蛋白Bcl-2不同，关于Bax在乳腺癌中的生物学作用的临床研究相对较少。
采用免疫流式细胞术对255例未经治疗的乳腺癌患者进行凋亡相关Bax基因表达的研究。此外，采用相同方法对Bcl-2、VEGF和Nup88基因的表达进行研究。作为最终统计分析的研究变量，还纳入了肿瘤的组织学类型、组织学和核分级、激素受体、p53、Ki-67或c-erb-B2的表达、腋窝淋巴结转移、肿瘤大小和DNA倍体情况。
采用相同方法检测发现，促凋亡蛋白Bax的表达与Nup88（p<0.0001）、VEGF（p=0.0014）和Bcl-2（p=0.0063）的表达显著相关。同时也发现Bax表达与c-erb-B2表达呈负相关，虽未达到统计学显著性（p=0.058）。
本研究为细胞凋亡与血管生成之间鲜为人知的联系增添了证据。此外，还揭示了Bax与Nup88表达之间一种此前未报道的关系。
